Table of Contents

One: Physical Science

1. Distilling Science from Philosophy: Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton
2. Black Holes, Dark Matter, and the Great Attractor
3. The Einstein-Bohr Debate: Does God Play Dice?
4. Measuring the Age of the Earth
5. Scale
6. The Relative Abundance of Chemical Elements
7. Mechanisms of Change

Two: Ethics

1. Mammon and America
2. Racism and Racialism
3. Decision to Drop the Bomb
4. Feeding the Hungry
5. Civil Disobedience
6. Natural vs. Unnatural
7. Double Effect
8. Debate on Euthanasia
9. Loyalty vs. Civic Responsibility
10. Abortion
11. Ethics in Science

Three: Politics and Ideology

1. The Enlightenment and Jeffersonian Thought
2. Securing Individual Liberties
3. Thomas Paine and Revolution
4. The Tenor of Current Political Debate
5. The Untold Story of Watergate

Four: Public Policy

1. Problems at NASA
2. Freedom of Speech
3. Comparable Worth
4. Preferential Hiring and Promotion
5. Substance Abuse on the Job
6. Performance Appraisal Systems
7. Collective Bargaining--Public & Private
8. Air Traffic Controllers vs. Reagan: Lessons Learned from the Strike

Five: Philosophy

1. Ontology and Physics
2. Rationalism and Empiricism
3. Political Theory: Argument for Moderation
4. Imposition of Islamic Law
5. Apostasy
6. The Nature of God
7. Reverends Robertson and Falwell Revisited
8. When Science Goes Too Far
9. Aids: Biological Warfare or the Judgment of God?
10. Legislating Morality

Six: Law

1. The U.S. Supreme Court and Affirmative Action
2. Judicial Review
3. The Bar
4. Presumption of Innocence
5. Problems with Juries
6. Stare Decisis
7. Statutory Interpretation
8. Constitutional Interpretation
9. Judicial Effectiveness and Miranda
10. The Basis of Law
11. Supreme Court Decisions and Prisoner's Rights

Seven: Social Science

1. Juvenile Crime and Cognitive Dysfunction
2. Trends
3. East German Prisons
4. Juvenile Detention
5. Bail Practices

Eight: Ephemera

1. Misguided Fears: The Electronic Surveillance Debate
2. Electronic Surveillance, Law Enforcement, and the USA Patriot Act
3. Explanations for Subemployment
4. Protectionist Trade Policies
5. Small Business Solution

Nine: The Tetragrammaton

1. Coping With Terrorism: United States, Germany, and South Korea
2. Credibility Gap: Unanswered Questions on the Bush Administration's Iraq War Policy
3. Sixth Amendment Under Siege: How the U.S. Department of Justice is Undermining Attorney-Client Privilege
4. Is the Religious Right Eroding Separation of Church and State?


Introduction

This is the best of my academic writing—from the early years at Tidewater Community College (1997-2000) to completing a baccalaureate in governmental administration at Christopher Newport University (2000-2004). Whatever the intrinsic worth of such documents, one thing is clear: they are too good to just throw away. Hence this collection.

Why anyone would want to read all of this stuff is beyond me—not even I would welcome the task. But I would suggest several items: “The Enlightenment and Jeffersonian Thought”; “When Science Goes Too Far”; “Juvenile Crime and Cognitive Dysfunction”; “The Untold Story of Watergate”; “Electronic Surveillance, Law Enforcement, and the USA Patriot Act”; “Explanations for Subemployment”; “Ethics in Science.” Most of the rest might appeal to those with particular interests—philosophy, natural science, law and criminal justice, public administration.

I should say a word or two about the last chapter, “The Tetragrammaton.” During my final semester at CNU I took four classes, each of which required a term paper. I had the novel idea of writing four thematically related papers (although none of the professors knew it), dealing with various aspects of 9/11, terrorism, the Bush Administration, and the direction our country is taking. The resulting texts, while highly informative were less than fabulous, but it was an attempt to experiment with form—something I’ve continued in graduate school.

Throughout all of this work, a distinct worldview is discernable—a sort of philosophy—which is the only real justification for this volume. My worldview is grounded in science (which is why the “physics” essays appear in Chapter One), but is also Theistic. Fundamentally, there is no conflict between science and asserting the existence of God, in my view. Hopefully, a moral sensibility comes through as well.

A great deal of material was omitted—literary analysis, eastern philosophy, music reviews, and such—because it didn’t quite fit the rationalist tone of the collection. I plan to include those items in a future volume. So, here it is—the good, the bad, and the ugly—all in one tome.

CHM